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Lawrence Taylor is Officially Off the Hook

One of the hardest-hitting linebackers in NFL history is now one of the most notorious sex offenders in America. But for Lawrence Taylor—once the lynchpin of the New York Giants defense—that's actually a good thing. Seven months after he was accused of raping a 16-year-old Bronx runaway in a New York hotel room, LT pled guilty yesterday to sexual misconduct and patronizing a prostitute and told a judge that he had no idea that the girl he paid $300 to sleep with was a minor. "She told me she was 19," he said, before revealing that—ummm, gasp?—he now knew she was just 16 and incapable of consenting to sex. As a result, he was spared jail time and sentenced to register as a sex offender and to serve six years probation. A hard hit? Yeah. But not nearly as bad as it could have been. Let's just hope LT learned a giant lesson from this whole mess. [via AP]